For the third consecutive year, If You Ask Me (IYAM) has supported emerging filmmakers with mental health and/or addiction experiences to create new work. This constantly evolving program has grown to follow the needs of the filmmakers and RWM is very excited to be showing four new short films in 2019 by Saba Akhtar, Julianne Ess, Erum Khan and James Knott.

These filmmakers have worked under the guidance of mentor Fallon Andy and have been working at Trinity Square Video over the summer months to develop new short films. Each year these artists have been commissioned to create longer works to be shared in the festival and next year they will graduate into becoming mentors for a new generation of filmmakers looking to share their mental health stories through film.

#GETMAD: JOIN THE CONVERSATION

1-on-1 advice for Young Filmmakers & Professionals

The IYAM participants are emerging arts leaders who are interested in giving back to their communities. Join the filmmakers as they engage in intimate conversations along with representatives from professional filmmaking organizations as they offer advice, talk through ideas, give feedback and, most importantly, meet other young filmmakers who are looking to share their stories through film!

CO-PRESENTERS

With support from CAMH’s Youth Engagement Initiative and the National Youth Action Council

CLOSING NIGHT FILM

Irene’s Ghost is a stunning 6-years-in-the-making documentary that follows a son’s search to find out about the mother he never knew. Cunningham breaks the silence and tracks down his mother’s friends and family to rebuild a picture of her. Cunningham was three when his Mother Irene died. His Father never spoke of it and the family’s silence around Irene meant that she was alive only in Cunningham’s imagination as a thistle seed or in the image of the moon. The birth of his own child inspires a journey to discover the truth about Irene, piecing together fragments of the past to make sense of the present. Utilizing gorgeous animation alongside moving archival footage, Irene’s Ghost lovingly rebuilds Irene’s lost life.

Screening with

Regina Pessoa’s latest animation beautifully illustrates her childhood memories of her charming and idiosyncratic uncle. This film is a testament of Pessoa’s love and admiration for her uncle’s unique spirit.

#GETMAD: JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Motherhood

How does talking about (or not talking about) post-partum depression and post-partum psychosis impact women and families? After the screening of Irene’s Ghost, we will explore the complicated layers of how post-partum disorders are understood and felt personally as well as culturally through first hand experiences from women and professionals in discussion with the filmmaker.

Charlie is looking for happy, Remi is a struggling musician and bartender who has clinical depression, Jinx is a burlesque performer and PHD candidate who works at The Orange Balloon, and Minka, no one knows what Minka does. In This House is a play about four young adults living together in Toronto. It is a look into the epidemic of loneliness and depression among the Millennial generation and the daily struggle to make something of yourself in this city. In This House is a play about a generation, a city and an exact time in our lives. This is a play about how we save each other.

#GETMAD: JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Millennial Mental Health: a two-part conversation

How are young people today talking about suicide? How are Millennials navigating their experiences with mental health and addictions? Join the cast of In this House after the shows on October 12 and October 15 as they discuss the production themes and their experiences navigating between being emerging artists, living on their own for the first time and managing their mental health. This two-part conversation will explore the unique difficulties for young people in Canada, and the communities of support being created as a response.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Workman Arts would like to acknowledge the Indigenous land on which we are presently
located; Toronto comes from the Kanien’kéha word Tkaronto, which can be translated as “where the trees meet
the water.” It is part of traditional territories of many nations: the Huron Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and
the Anishinaabe and the Mississaugas of the New Credit.

Workman Arts recognizes this is an ongoing dialogue; we attempt to honour the histories
of this land by sharing our space with all people—those Indigenous to Turtle Island and those from all over
the world.